Meet the TEDGlobal 2017 Fellows

PublishedMay 24, 2017

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Meet the new class of TEDGlobal 2017 Fellows! Representing 18 countries — including, for the first time in our program, Somalia, Uruguay, Liberia and Zimbabwe — this class clears a high bar of talent, creativity and eccentricity. Among those selected, you’ll find a Somali computer scientist catalyzing the tech scene in Somalia and Somaliland; a policy influencer working to make healthcare Deaf-friendly; the founder of Botswana’s first and only LGBT-themed theater festival, and many more.

Below, get to know the new group of Fellows who will join us at TEDGlobal 2017, August 27–30, in Arusha, Tanzania.

Nighat Dad (Pakistan)Digital rights activist
Pakistani founder of the Digital Rights Foundation, a research and advocacy NGO that protects women and minorities from cyber harassment and defends their online freedom of expression.

Kyle DeCarlo (USA)Policy influencer + healthcare entrepreneur
US co-founder of the Deaf Health Initiative (DHI), an organization working to make healthcare Deaf-friendly through advocacy, policy changes and the creation of new medical devices.

Abdigani Diriye (USA)Tech entrepreneur + inventor
Somali computer scientist catalyzing the tech scene in Somalia and Somaliland through coding camps, incubators and accelerator programs. An inventor and advocate for innovation and research in Africa.

Susan Emmett (USA)Ear surgeon
US public health expert and ear surgeon studying global hearing health disparities in 15 countries and Indigenous groups around the world, in an effort to fight preventable hearing loss

Mennat El Ghalid (France | Egypt)Mycologist
Egyptian microbiologist studying fungal infections in humans, in an effort to discover their causes and develop new treatments and cofounder of ConScience, a nonprofit dedicated to science education.

Victoria Forster (UK | Canada)Cancer researcher
UK scientist researching new treatments for pediatric cancer, drawing on her own experience with leukemia to investigate the devastating side effects of current therapies

Mike Gil (USA)Marine biologist + science advocate
US marine biologist who studies the way reef fish communicate — and what these social interactions mean for the future of our coral reefs.

Robert Hakiza (DRC | Uganda)Urban refugee expert
Congolese cofounder of the Young African Refugees for Integral Development (YARID), which empowers refugees and builds community through vocational education, English classes, access to sports and computer literacy skills.

Miho Janvier (France)Solar storm scientist
French astrophysicist who works to predict “space weather” by studying the nature of solar flares and space storms, and how they impact planetary environments in our solar system and beyond.

Romain Lacombe (France)Clean air entrepreneur
French founder of Plume Labs, a company dedicated to raising awareness about global air pollution by creating a personal electronic pollution tracker that forecasts pollution levels in real time.

Kasiva Mutua (Kenya)Percussionist
International touring percussionist working to elevate the place of the African woman in music. Her performance style integrates African traditional music with modern styles such as jazz, hip-hop, reggae and zouk.

Micaela (15 years old) and her newborn, Franco, in Uruguay, photographed by Christian Rodriguez, who documents teenage pregnancy throughout Latin America.

Edsel Salvana (Philippines)Molecular epidemiologist + activist
Filipino physician fighting the HIV epidemic by using cutting-edge molecular tools in order to predict which patients are likely to fail treatment.